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Michael Bloch: Minimising and handling chargebacks

Wednesday, January 7th, 2009

ccThe word “chargeback” strikes fear into the hearts of most merchants. But they can be avoided – and challenged.

What is a chargeback?

A chargeback occurs when a credit card transaction is refunded to a cardholder at the direction of the card issuing bank after a dispute from a customer.

Chargeback period

The customer has 6 months to dispute a transaction in many cases. If you offer subscription services, the situation is even worse as the chargeback can still be made 6 months after the end of the subscription and for the full subscription amount.

How does the chargeback process work?

1.    Customer lodges complaint with card issuing bank
2.    Bank researches the issue
3.    Bank debits merchant account and credits cardholder
4.    Merchant account provider sends you documentation
5.    You can then challenge the chargeback by providing suitable evidences as to why the transaction was valid.
6.    Further evidence may then be required, or a decision is made.
7.    In the even the chargeback challenge is successful, cardholder is debited again
8.    If the chargeback challenge ultimately fails, merchant is charged a chargeback fee along with having refunded the purchase.

Due to the to and fro with evidence requests and counter challenges, it can literally take months to resolve a chargeback one way or another.  It’s a frustrating, time-sucking and life wasting affair.

Chargeback danger levels

If your chargeback level is too high, you can lose your merchant account. Usually the danger figure is around 1% of transactions. However, this can mean  1% of transaction *value*. If you have lots of small sales and few large ones; and one of the large sales is charged back, that can threaten your merchant account!

Losing your merchant account is not only a short term problem, but it’s a bit like having a criminal record – you’ll find it harder to get another account and could possibly have to swallow higher processing fees.

The costs of chargebacks

Chargeback fees are usually around the $30 mark. That’s rather nasty, but then there’s all the time you spend in dealing with the issue too; plus also the loss of the sale itself where there may not be goods involved or the good are not returned. Even if your chargeback levels don’t quite hit the 1% level, your merchant account provider may get jittery and up your transaction fees. Every chargeback inches you closer towards such a situation.

Preventing chargebacks

While you can challenge chargebacks, prevention is better than cure, particularly when you understand that the way the chargeback system works is in favor of the customer – and is abused. Here’s a few tips to minimise the number of chargebacks you’ll see and things that will help you when you receive them.

Accurate marketing

If you’re exaggerating or simply misleading people in your marketing, expect a ton of chargebacks. Keep things above board.

Fraud

Fraud is a major reason for chargebacks – so ensure you have the proper screening processes in place. You should also ensure you use CVV2 on your order forms, also known as the Card Security Code (CSC). The CVV2 number isn’t included on the magnetic stripe of the card; so if card numbers are stolen, without the CVV2 number, there’s less of a chance they’ll be used successfully in fraud.

Refund policy

Refund policies can be quite contentious critters with some companies adding in all sorts of conditions. Wherever you can, be as flexible as possible with refunds as it’s cheaper to refund than to deal with a chargeback. A solid refund policy can also help boost your sales.

Communications

Offer multiple points of contact, clearly posted on your site. It’s unusual for a customer to engage the chargeback process without having first tried to contact the merchant and it’s something that the card issuing bank will usually advise them to do first.

A sure way to see more chargebacks is to not respond promptly to customer complaints or support requests; so ensure that it’s easy for people to contact you and that you do check and respond to your email regularly.

Always provide invoices and receipts to customers that very clearly state the business name that will also appear on the statement  – it helps the customer to recognize your company name when they see the charge on their credit card statement and lessens the chances that they will think it’s a fraudulent transaction.

It’s also crucial your contact details on file with your merchant account provider are current as chargeback notifications are usually sent via fax or snail mail unfortunately – and often they are delayed.

Clear terms of service

Be very clear in your terms about issues relating to cancellation, refunds and the way your services and/or products are provided. Any grey area that’s challenged will likely work against you.

Record keeping

You need to keep a copy of all receipts and communications with a customer as these may be valuable evidence in a chargeback challenge.

Be civil

You need to be professional in all communications with your customers. If you’re aggressive, this can work against you in a chargeback review. Even if the customer is being totally unreasonable and rude themselves; stay calm – their behavior will work against them.

Be thorough in challenges

A chargeback notice will contain specific instruction on what you need to provide in order to challenge it. Read these notices carefully as failure to supply the  information will just waste time and money as the review will be delayed. If you’re unable to provide a particular item; call the merchant account provider for advice – they may offer ideas as to what other forms of evidence would be acceptable.

For online merchants, chargebacks are a particularly threatening problem, mainly because the cardholder signature isn’t provided. In many ways, the banking and credit card system is still quite antiquated. Until such time that the card industry is dragged screaming into the 21st century on these issues, merchants just need to cover as many bases as they can.

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Michael Bloch: Creating Need and the Inner Circle Strategy

Monday, January 5th, 2009

taming-the-beastIn this article we’ll take a look at some strategies used by successful entrepreneurs to turn their online forays into  amazing money-makers.

Creating needs and starting trends

Some of the biggest names in the ecommerce world don’t just address needs, they create them – particularly in relation to information products.

Here’s how it works

1. They build up a client base with a product that addresses a real need.

2. Once those clients’ needs have been addressed and trust has been established,  a new product is introduced, or a repackaged existing product available elsewhere to create a new need.

3. Promoting the new product to their client base as something that they “gotta have” and will definitely assist them in whatever purpose, sales are generated purely upon trust.

4. As “outsiders” notice the product through this activity, a trend is begun. The non-existent need the product addresses now becomes real.

A good example of “creating need” are the plethora of products related to search engine optimization. Good SEO boils down to a number of basic, ethical optimization strategies – there is absolutely no rocket science involved.

Many who create and market these products know that these tools have a very short serviceable life – as more people buy them and employ them, the less effective they become. Search engine tweak their algorithms to dampen the effects of these tools. Then we’re back to the basic principles of search engine optimization being the most effective way again.

The short term gain the tool brings pales into insignificance in comparison to if the client had instead just focused on the basics of optimization and steadily built traffic. But given the tool did work, the client is then receptive again for the next tool that comes along that the vendor offers.

This establishes a mentatility – the client is always looking for the “next big thing” – and trusts the vendor to provide it, never actually trying the basics for long enough and discovering that those strategies work equally as well – and for longer.

The inner circle strategy

Competitors within an industry will often collaborate for mutual financial gain.

Here’s how what I call “The Inner Circle strategy” works, again using online business products and services as a scenario. If you’re on any marketing guru lists, you’ll likely recognise the ploy:

Vendor A develops a product and introduces it to his client base, not only to sell to them directly, but also inciting them to promote it to others via the in-house affiliate program. At the same time he approaches Vendor B and offers a generous revenue share if Vendor B will introduce the product to his client list.

Vendor B then advertises it to his clients in such a way:

“I’ve just heard from my good friend A, an online marketing dynamo, who has created the most amazing marketing tool in the history of the Internet. I used it yesterday and it sent 8 million visitors to my site in the first hour  – this has got to be seen to be believed! My pal has generated eleventy squillion dollars from using this. I told him that he is crazy to want to release it to other folks; but as you are one of my valued clients, I can get you an amazing discount.. blah blah blah. Act fast before he comes to his senses!”

Using this strategy, Vendor A doesn’t have to earn the trust of Vendor B’s clients. Vendor B has done it for him. In many of these cases, if you go out to Vendor A’s site, you’ll often also see a testimonial from Marketing Tool Vendor B there.

But wait, there’s more…

Vendor C may visit Vendor A’s site, notice the new product, also notice Vendor B plugging it. Vendor C sees an opportunity to make some cash by joining the Inner Circle.

This process is then a case of rinse-and-repeat, until dozens of Vendors are promoting the product and offering testimonials on Vendor A’s site. Given this much coverage from industry identities, a trend is generated and sales go through the roof.

Because so many Vendors are linking to A’s site, A’s search engine rankings also climb, given Vendor A a swathe of extra coverage, sales and affiliate signups at no real cost to him whatsoever.

After Vendor A’s campaign has ended, Vendor B comes up with a new product and the cycle repeats with all the “usual suspects” involved.

This is a classic example of why, in some industries, your “competitor” shouldn’t be seen as a threat, but a great resource.

Similar strategies are also used widely in the upper echelons of MLM and franchising in the bricks and mortar world. It sounds a little unethical, but if the product does deliver results then it just boils down to good business and marketing.

The Inner Circle strategy is *very* powerful and wide open to abuse, so please use it wisely. If you’ve worked hard to gain credibility, don’t blow it for the sake of a few fast bucks.

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Michael Bloch: Using Open Source Software in Online Business

Monday, January 5th, 2009

taming-the-beastOpen Source Software refers to free applications provided under specific licensing terms where the source code is accessible and able to be edited..

Open Source software includes a very wide range of applications, from hobbyist applications  to full strength enterprise ecommerce platforms. It’s quite likely even the operating system of the server your site is hosted on is powered by Open Source products.

A couple of well known examples of Open Source software are OSCommerce, a shopping cart, and FreeBSD, a server operating system.

Open Source software principles

Information on the guiding principles of Open Source software can be viewed on the Open Source Initiative (OSI) site. Licensing usually falls under two different types – the GNU GPL and the GNU LGPL. The LGPL  has more restrictions on use and redistribution.

Open Source advantages

Open Source applications have provided the base of many incredibly successful businesses. Some of the advantages include:

Free software

If you’re just starting out in online business, working capital can be scarce and Open Source software can dramatically reduce your startup costs. A side effect of the Open Source community is that it has also helped reduce prices on commercial software over the years.

Evolving applications

Some Open Source software projects can have hundreds of programmers involved which helps in the rapid development of new features and bug fixes. These communities also provide a massive knowledge base for using, tweaking and troubleshooting the products.

Encourages learning

Open Source software encourages you to go beyond the user interface and mess around in the code; applying modifications (mods) and other edits to suit your own needs.

Not locked into vendors

Using commercial application can make you reliant on a single company to maintain and edit the application for you, which can get rather pricey over time. Often when you buy a commercial product, support will only be included for a set length of time, after which you’ll need to renew your license. Also, if the vendor goes broke, they might just disappear; leaving you high and dry; whereas popular Open Source applications have a life of their own with programmers coming and going but a core community remaining; keeping the project alive.

Disadvantages of Open Source

There’s no such thing as a free lunch and this also applies to Open Source software; particularly if you don’t want any part of editing or programming an application.

Projects can die

Just as with commercial applications, some Open Source projects do die; usually the smaller ones, so you may be stuck with an application you can’t upgrade yourself and requiring programmers to do customizations.

Support issues

When you buy commercial software, the vendor is usually committed to supporting you; but in the case of Open Source software, you’re relying on the goodwill of others to help you troubleshoot.

New features

What you may consider is a great feature for the product may not be shared by the application’s programming community and even if it is accepted, it can be a very long time until it’s implemented.

Choosing a product

If you do decide that Open Source software is the path you’d like to take, bear the following questions in mind when selecting an application.

  • Does the software have a solid history?

  • Are regular updates and fixes provided?

  • Is the community around the application active?

  • Is the community newbie-friendly?

  • Are there well known companies using the software?

  • Is there enough coherent documentation with the software?

  • Are there programmers for hire at reasonable rates if you should get stuck?

When considering whether to use Open Source software, remember that the concept of “free” is related to freedom more than to dollars. Although Open Source applications can be a great alternative; if you’re someone who needs phone support or personalized email assistance – you may be better off financially in the long run buying a commercial software package.

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Michael Bloch: Search Engine Optimization – Title Tag Tips

Monday, December 1st, 2008

website-picA well thought out title tag is a simple, but incredibly important part of search engine optimization. A good title tag will help you in your quest for better rankings.

Many site owners still tend to use text along these lines in their title tag: “Welcome to SiteName.com”

This is a little bit of a waste of primo page real estate, particularly if your company name is not relevant to the products or services you sell. Major search engines consider the text contained within a title tag as an important part of relevancy and therefore ranking.

I experienced this first hand on my own site many years ago as “Taming the Beast.net”, the name of my business, really did not reflect what my site was about. By simply changing the title tag text, I saw an improvement in ranking for the home page very quickly.

What is a title tag?

The TITLE tag isn’t displayed on your page, but is shown in the browser title bar when the page is viewed. The title tag can be found by viewing the html source of your page. It is located before the <body> tag, between the <head> and </head> tags e.g.

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Title Tag Text</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<p>content of the page</p>
</BODY>
</HTML>

In Microsoft FrontPage, editing title tags is simple. Right mouse button click over the page while in “Normal” mode and select “Page properties’, then complete the field that states “Title”. Click OK and that’s it. In other editors, usually there will be a feature similar to this; check your editor’s help file for instructions.

How long should a title tag be?

In my opinion, The title tag should be kept between 60 – 90 characters in length; but recommended lengths will vary depending upon the person’s own experience. To me, a good guide is the way Google displays search results. You’ll notice that Google only displays approximately 65 characters of the title in listings, although some engines display more.

Relevancy and keywords

Even if you choose to use more characters than I recommend, you should always have the most important keywords towards the beginning of the tag. Keywords are important and popular terms related to the content of your page

Here’s an example:

<TITLE>Web marketing – articles, tools, news and reviews</TITLE>

Important note – always remember to close your tags e.g. </TAG>

Things to avoid

Another very important tip – always use different title tags for each page of your site and only use the same word no more than twice in a single title tag; preferably with a decent gap between. This is to prevent search engines from a) mistakenly “thinking” all your pages are the same or similar in the case of the former and b) for the latter, avoiding penalties for overusage of a single word; a practice known as keyword stuffing.

One final big “don’t” is not to attempt to fool the search engines by implementing irrelevant titles. For instance, if your page is about car steering wheel covers, don’t use tags that indicate it’s about car insurance. This type of activity can see your page ranking penalized ; particularly if it’s obvious that it’s a conscious implementation.

Back your title tag up with good content

A good title tag without solid page content will be of little benefit; so try to ensure that your visible page content is unique, keyword rich (without going over the top) and unique. Along with a few inbound links from other sites and a dash of luck, you’ll soon see the benefits of taking care when implementing your title tags!

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Michael Bloch: PCI Compliance – what Australian Online Businesses Need to Know

Saturday, November 1st, 2008

credit-cardUp until late 2006, PCI compliance was only compulsory for merchants capturing credit card data on their sites and processing more than 20,000 transactions a year; or having been identified previously as a security risk.

PCI compliance for all Australian merchants capturing credit card data from their sites for Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover Financial Services transactions became compulsory way back in September 2006; but many still don’t know what it actually is, let alone how to implement it. This is no fault of business owners, but it just appears that the financial institutions in Australia have had challenges getting the right information through.

With credit card data theft from large companies and organizations continuously hitting the headlines in Australia; card issuers are now demanding more from ecommerce merchants, large and small, to ensure that transactions occurring via their sites are secure. They’ve created what’s known as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) or PCI compliance for short. This isn’t just an Australian initiative, it’s been implemented globally.

The Risks of Non-Compliance

Australian online store owners who are obligated to implement a PCI compliance program and don’t become compliant may find themselves without the ability to process transactions or may face fines from the card company in a situation where security is breached. Additionally, the added protection that being PCI compliant provides can prevent damage to your business reputation and legal action by decreasing the chance of breach of your systems.

Unfortunately, achieving compliance is not something you’ll be able to do totally on your own as PCI compliancy requires scanning and verification by an authorized 3rd party.

It all sounds quite frightening if you haven’t been through it before and while it is a somewhat time consuming exercise and can be costly depending on the vendor you select, the process isn’t as difficult as you might expect – but much of the complexity will also depend on the third party scanning vendor you engage. You should really shop around for deals on PCI compliance because you’ll find huge variations on price and support.

What’s Involved With PCI Compliance?

PCI compliance is a set of security precautions that must be implemented to provide maximum protection of sensitive information during any credit card transaction. The compliance criteria include specific auditing processes, some of which are automated, the others requiring some action on the part of the merchant. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard is referenced by all credit card issuers.

PCI compliance for most online businesses, that is merchants processing up to 6 million transactions a year, consists of two main elements:

  1. An automated scan of your site and the server you’re hosted on by an authorized scanning vendor every 3 months
  2. Yearly self assessment questionnaire

Quarterly PCI Compliance Scan

The scanning vendor you select will execute a range of automated tests against your web site and the server it’s hosted on and then provide a report. The scans test for hundreds of different security issues.

The report will contain a great deal of detail; much of it in technical jargon, highlighting potential problem areas in relation to severity. Depending on the issues flagged, it may be just an advisory on how you can improve your security; but there may also be critical items that prevent your site from being PCI compliant.

A good vendor with then work with you and your web hosting company if necessary to help you address those issues. Chances are, if you are hosted on a shared server with other accounts, server based issues affecting your compliancy will affect all other clients on the server, so it’s in the host’s best interest to deal wit the issues.

PCI Compliance Self Assessment

In addition to the scan, you’ll also need to a self assessment questionnaire; a sample of which can be viewed here (PDF). It consists of the following requirement sections:

  1. Build and maintain a secure network
  2. Protect and maintain client data
  3. Maintain a Vulnerability Management Program
  4. Implement Strong Access Control Measures
  5. Regularly Monitor and Test Networks

Many merchants may find the form quite off-putting given some of the jargon in the self assessment, but again, a good PCI compliance vendor will assist you with completing this form.

The Benefits of PCI Compliance

While all this may seem to be an utter pain to do, there are real benefits from achieving PCI compliance, including

  • Your scanning vendor will give you a seal you can display on your site; a great reassurance to potential customers that you are able to secure their details. Many merchants experience a boost in sales when displaying recognized seals.

  • You’ll feel better knowing that your platform is secure to industry standards.

  • You will be actively helping in the fight against fraud.

  • You will help to lift the general reputation of ecommerce – and that benefits the entire industry.

Scanning Vendors

There are a wide range of choices available; some costing far more than others and doing essentially the same thing. Remember to shop around and that you don’t have to find an authorized scanning service in Australia as the PCI standards are global. All PCI scans must be executed by a compliant network security scanning vendor – a list of approved vendors can be found at https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/

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Michael Bloch: The Unexpected Gift

Saturday, November 1st, 2008

taming-the-beastThrowing in an unexpected gift after the sale can be a great way to keep customers, encourage people to buy more and incite them to tell others about you.

I buy coffee online  – I just scoot out to the site, follow a well beaten path to the order form, done in 60 seconds. It also means no stops along the way to check out other items.

When I unpacked my latest shipment of coffee, there was a nice surprise – a small bar of fair trade organic chocolate. I happen to love chocolate :) . This gift had a number of effects:

a) It was a nice surprise, leading to even more warm and fuzzy feelings about the business

b) I’m reminded that they sell chocolate – something I had forgotten about

c) I’ve been back out to their online store to check out other goodies I’ve missed seeing on past visits.

d) Even if I wasn’t a chocalate fiend, I likely would have given the free bar to someone who was and told them where it came from.

e) I’ve written about the business on my own site as a result of my positive experience with them

f) Given it was a no strings attached gift, there’s a greater chance I’d buy it in the future. It was far more effective than a written blurb about the chocolate. There’s only so many ways you can paint the concept of melt-in-your-mouth dark chocolate.

All this positive stuff from a bar that might have cost the business a dollar. Of course, not everyone would be as excited as I was about this small gift; but chocolate? I mean, it’s pretty hard to go wrong with that!

One of the other great aspects about this strategy is that it felt very personal. There was a handwritten note accompanying the chocolate with just 3 words on it – “With compliments, Robert”. The paper the message was on didn’t even have the company logo on it; which further added to the personal feel.

Free gifts you can provide

If you’re not in the business of selling coffee or chocolate, but other physical goods; consider using low cost items you’re overstocked on and having trouble shifting. Alternatively, request samples from manufacturers that you can then distribute to your customers. Your suppliers may be more than happy to provide these samples to you for free if you explain how you intend to use them.

Old favorites such as pens with your logo or other trinkets that have some practical value are well received. Bought in quantities of a thousand, refillable pens with your logo printed on them can cost as little as 35c each.

What if you don’t sell physical goods? Then the gift you provide doesn’t have to be a physical. Here’s some suggestions for purely online businesses selling digital goods and services.

Subscription bonus

After a few months of subscription, give away a free month to select clients. Flag the free gift with them via a personal email, recognizing their loyalty. Including a gentle reminder for them to let others know about you doesn’t hurt. Ask this as a personal favor rather than as an expectation.

Software

If you have low priced software items that you sell, surprise your clients who have bought other more expensive titles with a free license -  encourage them to give it to someone else if they can’t use it.

You can also pick up cheap premium software packages from other software companies offering reseller rights. In these arrangements, you can distribute the software without charging for it as part of a existing commercial relationship with a client, but you can’t give it away totally free to just anyone that visits your site – that way the software title retains some perceived dollar value.

Another effective strategy is providing clients with a software item that’s reached the end of its life cycle. The software is still useful, but not popular enough to warrant promoting or supporting it any more. Let the client know what the retail value of the software was.

Reports and white papers

Put together a *useful* report or white paper that isn’t generally available to non-customers; and be sure to flag this when you distribute it to your clients. Don’t use the white paper as a hard sell for another product; it’s meant to be a gift of value to make your clients feel special. Be sure to let your customers know what their bonus is worth.

Remember the gift principle

The power of the unexpected bonus is simply that the client hasn’t had to do *anything* to get the bonus and it’s totally unexpected. If you make people jump through hoops to get the freebie or hint about it in your pre-sales pitch, it loses the feeling of being a gift.

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Michael Bloch: Getting Australian traffic from Google

Wednesday, October 1st, 2008

google-ozAre you an Aussie online business owner with a site targeted to people in Australia? Do you have non-.com.au domain name extension and is your site hosted on a server outside Australia?

If so – are you having trouble ranking on Google.com.au search, or perhaps even just getting listed, yet you’ve observed all the basics of good optimization techniques?

It’s a common problem; but a feature provided by Google may help you improve your rankings – totally legitimate, no shady SEO (Search Engine Optimization) tactics involved.

My own example of tanked Australian rankings

I’m based in Australia (Adelaide), but  my site; TamingTheBeast.net, is a non-Australian domain name and it’s hosted on a server in the USA.

If you run a search on Google.com using this keyword set:

web marketing adelaide

..my site should be listed on the first page where it’s been for years; well – let me clarify that – it was still there at the time of writing – Google giveth and Google taketh away and perhaps it’s done the latter by the time you read this article :) .

Now try the same search via Google.com.au, selecting the “pages from within Australia” radio button. My site is not in the top ten results, not even in the first 100 results. If I was depending on search engine traffic from the local market; I would have been toast a long time ago and certainly wouldn’t be able to work full time from home as I have done for the last 6 or so years. A first page ranking is so crucial for generating appreciable traffic.

So why such a difference? Why is it that I rank so highly for exactly the same term on a list of results double the size of the local results; yet on the local search results I’m nowhere near a ranking that would provide me any benefit?

It’s partly, and predominantly in my opinion, because Google weighs the domain name country extension and where a site is physically hosted as part of calculating ranking in Australia-specific searches. The term “adelaide” just doesn’t have any real ranking power in this type of search unless it’s associated with a local domain name (.com.au) or the server is located here.

Previously when this occurred to site owners, they’d usually have to redo their site with a new .com.au domain name, new content and host it on an Australian based server – basically starting from scratch. Thankfully, Google last year decided to provide an easy to use tool so you can manually flag which country your site should be associated with; regardless of extension and server location.

To make the geographic association, you’ll need to log into/register with Google Webmaster Tools, then click on the “tools” tab, select “set geographic target” and select your country from the list. Nice and easy – then it’s just a matter of crossing your fingers and waiting.

If you haven’t come across Google Webmaster Tools before, it’s a free service provided by Google to assist webmasters in diagnosing potential site problems, monitor how Google crawls and indexes your site and to gain some insight regarding the visitors who arrive on your site via the search engine.

Important points to consider

Only apply this feature site-wide if your online business caters primarily to the Australian market as it may have a negative effect on rankings in the general Google results. Notice I stated “site-wide”. More on that in a moment.

An issue to certainly consider before taking this action is how many people might be using the Australian specific Google search currently; i.e.; does your target market use the general Google search first and then only switches to the “pages from within Australia” if they can’t locate what they want?

If you have solid rankings for a chosen term in the general Google search, you may do yourself a rankings injury as you’re not guaranteed the same placement in the “pages from within” results. It’s important to bear in mind that the search engines will do as they wish; constantly changing and tweaking their ranking algorithms; so what works today, may not work tomorrow..

In my opinion, you should only do this if you aren’t ranking well on either search and Australia is your primary market – consider it a near last ditch effort if all else has failed before you start your site from scratch with a .com.au domain name, fresh content and hosting on an Australian server.

.. but there’s another great feature in Google Webmaster Tools that may help you if you don’t want to risk your general Google search rankings, yet want to try and boost your Australian traffic.

While specifying more than one country for a site isn’t possible in Google Webmaster Tools, you can choose a different country for each subdomain or folder. This being the case, an alternative and safer approach may be to create some fresh, totally unique and very Australian targeted content in a new folder within your web site; then flag with Google that folder as being Australia specific.

Switching web hosts

Geographic association is something you need to be very conscious of when moving to another web host if the local market is your primary interest. Just because a web hosting company may have an office in Australia, it doesn’t mean the servers are located here – in fact, you’ll often find the host’s servers are based in the USA.

While this is worth checking into before making a change of hosting provider; Google’s safety net of being able to manually associate a site with a geographic region provides somewhat of a safety net.

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Michael Bloch: Choosing Domain Names

Wednesday, October 1st, 2008

taming-the-beastChoosing a domain name is a big decision and finding a good domain name that isn’t taken these days can be difficult. Here’s some tips to help you in selecting a name.

Make a list

While you’ll likely have a preferred name, make a list of possibilities in case it’s not available, preferably dozens of options listed in order of preference. Don’t have your heart set on just a couple of names as you’ll probably be disappointed.

Use WHOIS to check availability

Typing an address into your browser will not be an accurate way of checking on ownership as the vast majority of all domain names currently registered are not in use.

A WHOIS query is the most accurate way to tell. To access a WHOIS application and check on the availability of a domain name, try this application – it will also offer you some variations.

Generic, business names and trademarks

Most people choose to register their business name as a domain name, but it’s well worthwhile considering selecting a generic name, something that is related to your subject area or industry. Not only will it be easier for people to remember, but it will also have greater resale value if you should choose to sell your site in the future.

It’s also advisable to check whether the name you are registering encroaches on any other trademark. Many people have registered celebrity or company names hoping to make a quick buck by selling them back to their “owners”. This usually backfires as it is an illegal practice called “cybersquatting”.

Generic terms cannot be trademarked to the point of the exclusion of others using word combinations. Since generic one word domain names are virtually impossible to locate now, try two or three word combinations that reflect your products and services.

Keep it short and simple

While gr8t-sheet-sales-4u-2day-bargains.com is descriptive, it’s also a mixture of numbers, letters, abbreviations, hyphens and terribly long.

A domain name should be easy to remember, easy to relay to someone over the telephone. Domain names should also be as brief as possible.

Country specific and other domain name extensions

Many countries now lease out the rights to use their extensions globally. The best example of this is the .tv domain which actually belongs to Tuvalu. There are now over 250 TLD’s globally.

A number of new Top Level Domain (TLD) extensions including .biz and .info were also released a couple of years ago amid a great deal of fanfare.

There is the temptation that if your first choice of names isn’t available as a .com or a .com.au, to register the name as a .net, .biz or .tv etc. Think carefully before making this decision. These extensions do not have the recognition of .com – which is the “Beverly Hills” of domain extensions, or of .com.au; specifically for the Australian market if you’re targeting locally.

Beware of the sharks

To register a domain name, you need to locate a Registrar. Domain name registrars are commonplace, but you need to be very careful who you register your domain through. Bigger is not necessarily better.

For example, an very well known international company currently offers .com domain name registration for US$35 a year for a basic service. Much better deals can be found with just a little hunting around; but it’s also important to register your name with a reputable company, preferably one accredited by authorities such as ICANN and auDA (for .com.au names). If something goes wrong with your domain name or the registration service suddenly disappears, it can have a crippling effect on your business.

Registration and web site hosting – 2 separate services

Many people are under the impression that registering a domain name also includes space for hosting your web site. While this can be the case with some package deals, it is important to understand that they are two separate services.

Summarising

In summary, here are the basic guidelines for choosing a good domain name:

  • Keep it as short as possible
  • Make it generic as possible, but related
  • No numbers or misspellings
  • Easy to remember
  • Easy to spell
  • Get a .com.au if you’re targeting locally
  • Get a .com and .com.au if you’re targeting locally and internationally.

One final point on hyphens. Some search engines rank sites more highly if your domain name contains keywords – e.g white-flombles.com. By removing the hyphen, you may lose the benefit on some of the smaller engines; but the major engines are able to pick out the keyterm in a non-hyphenated name.

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Michael Bloch: Canvassing For Partnerships – Tips

Monday, September 1st, 2008

taming-the-beastIf you’re seeking to land partnerships with other online businesses, whether it’s something as simple as a link exchange or a more in-depth involvement, it can be quite a challenge to get noticed in an overloaded inbox, let alone get a reply.

Here’s a few tips that will help increase positive responses to your initial approach.

Targeting

Don’t waste your time and that of the recipient by pursuing partnerships with sites that have no relation to your own products and services. While a site about cooking could be a good match for site site about herbs, a site selling meat products would be a very poor match with a vegetarian site. Before you start your canvassing, give some thought to what other products and services your customers would purchase that are somewhat related to your own.

Phone vs. email canvassing

In my opinion, initial canvassing should be done via email. With people working in all different sorts of time zones and most of us extraordinarily busy, email is a more considerate and polite approach. Once the potential partner has responded positively, then phone meetings can be organized if need be.

Credibility

Don’t use a free email address or your own ISP address to make an initial approach from – use an email address from the domain of your site – it’s just a little more professional and helps to avoid your email being mistaken as spam. Just on that point, ensure your site is up to scratch, because your target will more than likely visit that before responding. If they don’t like what they see, it’s unlikely you’ll get a follow up.

What’s in it for me

Focus on the WIIFM factor (What’s In It For Me) in relation to the partner and how they will benefit from an arrangement with you – but don’t overhype the benefits as you’ll likely be dealing with someone experienced in the online world. Keep things positive, but keep it real.

Previous partnership successes

Partnerships create work and most people don’t want to take on extra work if there’s not a good possibility of returns on their efforts.  Briefly refer to previous partnership successes that can help make the potential partner more open. For instance, state something like:

“We’ve set up a few similar partnerships with others with excellent results for both parties”

or

“One of our other arrangements has seen the partner increase their sales by X%”

Again, don’t overhype as you may be taken to task and asked to prove your claims.

Canvassing note length

In my experience, the shorter the note, the better. Capture their interest with a bit about you and the meat of the arrangement; but have templates already prepared provide greater detail, so you are able to respond quickly if your target expresses interest.

Don’t be patronizing

Don’t speak down to a potential partner by telling them something they already likely know, presenting it as being earth shattering news. For example, if you’re approaching a blog focused on the topic of search engine optimization, you’re wasting your digital breath and their time trying to explain the virtues of link exchanges.

Show that you’ve researched

So many partnership canvassing notes are sent in bulk. If you can relate something you’ve seen on the target partner’s site in the opening lines of your canvassing email, you’ll more likely get their attention.

Refer to an article or page and make an associated comment such as:

“I came across your site when looking for potential partners in this area. I thoroughly enjoyed your article on X….”

Personal approaches work better

Try and find out what your target’s name is. As soon as someone is addressed by name, it tends to boost their attention factor by a couple of notches. If it’s not on the site, it doesn’t hurt to send an email to the general contact address:

“Hello,

I’m X from X. I’d like to contact your Business Development Manager or equivalent regarding a partnership proposal I wish to submit. Could you please provide me the appropriate person’s contact details.

Thanks in advance for your assistance!

Regards,

You”

Follow up your approaches

Webmasters and site owners tend to be busy people, so don’t be too discouraged by a lack of reply. Follow up in a week or so and keep following up weekly (but no sooner), until such time you get a negative or positive response.

Always remain polite and mention the original email by either including it in the follow up, or paraphrasing it. If your first approach has been personal and you simply don’t have the time for these sorts of follow up, consquent contacts can be made en masse using list software.

I’ve experienced quite a few instances where I’ve approached a site owner time and time again with no response, then received a positive response; so polite persistence certainly does pay off.

Canvassing subject lines

Something I’ve found quite successful in grabbing attention is the following wording in a subject line:

re: (company name) partner inquiry

The “re:” infers a possible previous communication; one that the partner had responded to – this can help prompt someone to open an email as they think it may be an ongoing conversation. Including the target company name helps with recognition and the “partnership inquiry” sums up the contents of the email.

Most importantly, once you have your foot in the door with a potential partner, it’s important to keep the flow of communications going; otherwise it’s very possible the person will get distracted and you’ll be back to square one.

Good luck in your partner canvassing!

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Michael Bloch: Email Subject Line Tips

Friday, August 1st, 2008

taming-the-beastGrabbing the attention of the average person via email is quite a challenge these days. We’re all bombarded with marketing messages – not just via email, but television, radio and even when we walk down the street. This has somewhat of a numbing effect. Effective email subject lines play an crucial role in having your communication jump out at the user in amongst a crowded inbox.

Different sorts of email campaigns need a different approach to subject lines. The two main types of list communications are sales based (general email offers) and information based (newsletters).

Newsletter subject lines should be informational than hypey and general campaign subject lines should be to the point without overselling.

The following are some tried and tested tips based on my own experience and from other research; however, there’s no hard and fast rules and each list has its own culture – so experiment to find what suits your target group the best!

General guidelines

  • Subject lines should 51 characters long at the most to take into account the varying subject line display lengths of different email software and services. If your subject line needs to be longer, ensure the important information is at the beginning.
  • Be wary of words that may trigger spam filters such as free and “special offer” – words that infer selling tend to score higher during spam filtering processes and in conjunction with other scores applied to the email’s body content, may put the message over the threshold. Even punctuation and symbols in a subject line such as ! and $ can result in your email being filtered. Before sending out a campaign or newsletter, try sending a test message to different services to see if it gets through.
  • SHOUTING (caps lock) should be avoided. It’s another spammer/scammer trick and isn’t considered to be good email etiquette.

Email marketing subject lines

The use of a company name as the first word in a subject line is said to help achieve high open rates. If you don’t want to take up space by doing so, put the company name in the from line, along with a human name.

Example:
Clayton [Netrepreneur.com]

Use the person’s first name in a subject line if you have that information, followed by a question.

Example:
Fred, looking for email software?

Try to arouse curiosity.

Example:
Fred, something I need your feedback on.

Describe the email’s contents and an incentive for the reader to open it.

Example:
Discount tennis shoes – details inside

Create a sense of urgency without going overboard.

Example:
Fred, bbq markdown – today only

Newsletter subject lines

I’ve trialled various subject line formats for newsletters:

- Newsletter name followed by the date
- A nonsensical subject line made up of terms in the newsletter
- Highlighting an article in the newsletter
- Several highlights from the newsletter

Based on open rates, I’ve found the last variation to prove the most successful. Only having a newsletter title and date is rather ho-hum, using creative subject lines forces folks to do mental gymnastics and a single item mentioned may only appeal to small segment.

It can be rather challenging quoting multiple newsletter highlights due to the small amount of space, but I feel there’s a better chance of grabbing more people’s attention by doing so.

A newsletter I get uses the single item approach – and it’s stopped me from opening many of their newsletters, purely because I didn’t think the contents would be of interest to me. I kept a series of these emails and found out of 20 newsletters I received, I only opened only 5 of them shortly after receipt. After reviewing them all, I found that over a dozen had content not mentioned in the subject line that was of interest to me.

I suggest mentioning at least two items in an email newsletter subject line. In the case of my newsletter, a from and subject line might read something like:

From: Clayton [Netrepreneur.com]
Subject: PCI compliance, title tag tips, boosting rankings & more

The from line format helps with recognition and adds a touch of humanity. The subject line covers different different topics to appeal to different groups and alerts the person  to the fact there’s additional items in the newsletter.

Honing a subject line format takes time and patience, but without some way of tracking how many times an email was viewed, you’re working blind. If you’re in the market for email marketing/list management software, make sure it’s able to track unique opens.

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